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Welcome back to the hobby. No matter how long someone stays away from the hobby, the temptation to return is always there! :lol: I have had a Fluval edge, nice looking tank and the filter is actually half decent but you are correct in saying the type and number of fish can be kept in those...

Saw this in papers today and thought it perfect to put in here! :lol: (From the Metro paper btw) Is Die Hard a Christmas Film?

Wow, that is actually surprising to read of this, thats a real shame as I do like the look of those tetras to be fair and if had the right water requirements, would have seriously considered getting those. Sorry that has turned to be a regret and the loss of some of your other stock is not...

Make sure you do a large water change, as near as 100% water change, before adding new livestock, this will help reduce nitrate levels.

Yay! Congratulations your cycle is successfully done! Now comes the exciting bit, getting your new fishy friends!! :fish::fish::fish:

Would have expected ammonia to be at 0ppm if nitrite is at 0ppm. Could be a false reading of ammonia. Did you double check the tests, do one more check of ammonia as it’s quite common to get false readings especially if made a mistake with number of drops of solution from bottle to test tube...

Wow, thats real interesting reading about your hypothesis on spawning from your BTA, it makes more sense to me that this is what happened rather than the messy split you speak of. if this is the case, then its a very cool occurance and your tank must be good for them to do this successfully.

Thanks for that detailed response, most informative actually. Peacock gusgeons, lovely wee fish but unfortunately my water ph and hardness is a bit too hard for them! :confused: My tap water is at around pH of 8 and hardness at 18dG, which calculates to around 240ppm which kind of borders...

Thanks Wills, that is most helpful, I was never much good at stock numbers to be honest but though 16-20 would be ok but unsure if enough or not!! :blush: More amanos, perfect, I’ll have a look at LFS and see how much they’re going for these days and see how many I can get. Thinking 12 now...

Thanks, not so sure about the genius part but sure does make water changes that much easier, still needs a few tweaks here and there before am fully satisfied with the system. But not bad eh! Second tank will be a sw but need to swot up a bit on that before committing with that side of things...

A small update regarding the water change system. Have tested out the system and made a changing syphon and water filler in one with 15 mm pvc speedfit pipe and fittings. Stop valve to turn water off when required. Perforated piping for both syphoning and refilling tank, holes too small...

Thanks. I had actually thought about doing something like that with the RO system but due to the amount of waste water involved as well as my plans for starting sw tank next year would amount to too much waste water being produced and felt it was not strictly necessary for freshwater just...

Yes, quite correct it's a 47 us gals tank, sorry I should have included that in first place! And no, I am not planning on getting other species of fish in the tank due to the water hardness of my water source. So just the blue eyes and amanos and probably some snails too ;)

How many forktail blue eyes would be a good number for this tank so you guys think? Thinking 16 would be ok but any opinions? Also will be getting some amano shrimps, maybe 6 or 8, depending on prices.

I’ve had several leddy tube light units (sunny 6,500k) in the past for my smaller tanks and always liked them, they do promote good plant growth for the low tech tanks with just once weekly dose of ferts does the trick nicely. Definitely worth recommending.

I have had Rinelorica sp. Red whiptail catfish. A fairly easy catfish to keep, happy to munch on algae wafers and blanched vegs, and leftover food though never much due to the shrimps and snails etc, but had him for about 3 years then died suddenly, never found out why, really liked him but...

Neat video, not a huge amount of flow in the tank but yet can see some of the sword leaves swaying, looking good. Spotting twig cats or shrimps or any elusive livestock is half the fun of looking at any tank, finally spotting the fish or shrimp is pretty rewarding, going oh there you are...

I like drinking tea from the pot, 3 teabags no less. But one thing we must do is ‘warm the pot’, adding a small amount of boiled water to the pot, swirl it around and throw out and then add the tea bags and hot water. Adding milk first to cup then adding tea from the pots is correct way. As...

Yep, always best to wait until both ammonia and nitrite reads zero then add 3ppm and hope that becomes zero in 24 hours or less. Getting there. Patience ;) My cycling is almost finished as well and just a waiting game for it to completely cycle. Guess I have to be patient too! :lol:

This does look like tannins that’s naturally coming from the wood you have in the tank. This is perfectly ok and won’t harm any livestock when it’s time to add them into the tank. The tannins will naturally keep coming over the next few days to several weeks, it depends. The only way to get...

Can you use bottled ammonia rather than fish food? This is a much better way of adding ammonia as using fish food can lead to all sorts of issues, not least detritus worms and water issues but fish food is a very messy and inaccurate way of adding ammonia. Dr Tims Ammonium Chloride is fine to...

I use the same fertiliser from Tropica, I have always used it once a week, day after water changes. Plants grows really well with just one dose per week. Overdosing nutrients into the tank is not wholly recommended as excess nutrition in water column will likely lead to algae issues. And of...

HoB in fishkeeping terms is hang on back, quite right. However, in UK anyway, hob is the cooking top part where you place pots and pans on, hob in old English basically means ‘to hold’ or ‘holder’ as in holding old style pots from long poles over fire over a range, at least that’s what my mum...

Why do you need a qt tank now?

Very interesting finding out about the Poly-Filter, not something I’ve ever used or heard about. Good bit of information to learn about.

Would just add snack dose of ammonia just before you leave, 1ppm. This will help keep the bacteria ticking over and will be fine but otherwise they will simply go dormant when ammonia has stopped or at very low levels, bacteria will survive for a long time under the right conditions, so 2 -...

You’re doing fine now, TTA is merely pointing out some of the inaccurate information that’s been posted on this thread early on. Mostly about the photosensitivity in bacteria hence TTA linking the science papers backing this up. Must admit I have very, very little idea about this side of things...

To be more precise from my earlier post, these are pond/bladder snail eggs. In the picture I posted, in that particular tank there were red cherry shrimps and Threadfin Rainbowfish, and of course had a bunch of pond snails as well which hitchhiked in via plants from LFS, that was all the...

Yep, concur defintely snail eggs. This is a pic of snail eggs from my tank, almost exactly the same.

Well, you’re very nearly there! :hyper: It’s when you have successfully achieved zero ammonia and zero nitrite in consecutive 24 hour periods is when the cycle is completed. Don’t forgot once you have confirmed that tank is cycled, do as close as to 100% water change, this gets rid of all the...

Microwaving water for tea is not a great idea. What you have to remember about microwaves, is that the actual micro waves are sporadic and shoots at the water randomly therefore will heat the water unevenly. Despite the water being hot from the microwave, it’s not boiled evenly and it’s this...

Is ammonia at 0ppm as well? How many times have you added full ammonia doses? If 4-5 times then would add full dosage of ammonia to 3ppm and test again in 24 hours, if both ammonia and nitrite read 0ppm in or under 24 hours, you’re cycled!

That’s interesting as I have quickly googled is RO water good for brewing tea. And yep there’s a lot of conflicting information as per usual when it comes to t’old interweb but most seems to say that RO water does not contain enough minerals and makes the tea taste flat and dull apparently...